DIANE ROSS

The state of the State

What Thompson didn't say

THE GOVERNOR was quoting Winston Churchill: "We have not journeyed all the way across the centuries, across the oceans, across the mountains, across the prairies, because we are made of sugar candy." "And that is true of Illinoisans," the governor said, echoing Churchill: "We will not give up. We will not give in. We will go forward. We will earn a bright and prosperous future." It was an odd ending for a Thompson speech.

But then it was not the kind of State of the State speech you would have expected to hear from Big Jim, especially in an election year, his sixth year in office. Unlike other speeches, there was no enthusiasm in the delivery and little in the reception. Everything Thompson said in this speech, he had said before and better. Something was missing. To be fair, the governor was under the weather; his doctor later confined him to bed. Still, it was what Thompson didn't say, the subject he didn't cover that seemed almost ominous.

Thompson's legislative agenda was short and predictable: strictly tax reform. His priorities are 1) prevent the reclassification of corporate personal property as real property; 2) let the "multiplier," which equalizes property tax assessments, also work as a "divider" that would equalize property tax rates; 3) create a commission to reassess state and local tax structures; 4) ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) and 5) refinance the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA). (No. 2 was the only new one on the list.)

As for the accomplishments of the Thompson administration, the governor flapped the same laundry list, from preventing child abuse to experimenting with coal conversion. But when it

came to the state's biggest progras, the references were vague. Of education, Thompson said only that the state had spent more than ever before. Of transportation, that the state is still building, or at least repairing, roads and bridges. Of human services, generally, that the state has done more than it has in the past.

Thompson's agenda for the recovery of Illinois' ailing economy sounded as fuzzy as it did last year: improve business/labor/government relations, develop capital for small business, invest public pension funds, attract high-technology industry, generate jobs. As accomplishments, he claimed a breakthrough in his efforts to restore trust among business, labor and government, citing the settlement that produced landmark unemployment insurance reform last summer. He also claimed "extraordinary strides" in the services government provides business and labor, citing nearly 7,000 jobs his Department of Commerce and Community Affairs helped create in 1981

In his fiscal remarks, he did say a lot about the past, but for the first time, he seemed to understate his famous record.

It's no secret that the governor, with record-setting cooperation by the legislature, has moved heaven and earth to balance the fiscal 1982 budget. Yet what Thompson didn't really address in this speech is the fiscal state of the state, as of January 1982, mid-way through the year.

In a general context, he did say, twice, "We are not broke, we are not going broke." But specifically Thompson made only two references to the current critical fiscal year. Early in the speech he said: "The verdict. . . is not yet in, but with firm action by you to follow the stringent economic measures I have set in place, we have a chance to achieve it [a balanced budget], even this year." And then later: "Normally, we could absorb mild swings in the national economy with little difficulty. However it has become necessary to meet these downward economic trends with adjustments to the State budget." By "adjustments" he meant the proposals

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No doubt the governor didn't feel like trotting out the numbers just to restate his case for his two adjustments. He had wanted a special session, but his preferred running mate, House Speaker George Ryan, had embarrassed him only two weeks earlier by saying he wouldn't support the tax hike because the legislature wouldn't pass it before the primary. And it is hard to come up with any solid numbers these days, when you consider The Reagan variables. "Could it be that the fiscal situation is worse than it's ever been; so bad that a Two term governor doesn't want to talk about it in an election year? Bob Mandeville, Thompson's moneyman, admitted the budget was unbalanced by at least $20 million, when Thompson first proposed the adjustments last fall. That drops the projected balance in general funds at the end of the fiscal year in June from $197 to $177 million.

Mandeville, like everyone else, was still waiting for the latest revenue pro jections for the general funds, which were expected to be available in mid-February. Since March of 1981, however, the legislature's Economic and Fiscal Commission has been projecting less in general funds revenue than the governor's Bureau of the Budget: in March it was $200 million less; in October it was $115 million less. By January, the waiting game had created a definite undercurrent of trepidation at the State house, one that wasn't there in December or in November.

So the waiting game goes on. On March 3 the fiscal facts should be unveiled when Thompson presents his 1983 Budget Message. Perhaps he'll close with another Churchill quote: "Do not speak of darker days; let us rather speak of sterner days."

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